This proposal was our response to an invited competition brief from a private client seeking to purchase a densely wooded site for a new house within a sensitive conservation area.

Careful analysis of the condition of existing trees and sunpaths defined a viable clearing for a three sided courtyard house with views across the flood plain to the east. A ‘fourth’ side forms a gatehouse building at the entrance to the site.

Within the context of a highly sensitive location the key challenge was to develop an architectural language which is both contemporary and related to the local vernacular. At the same time to find a way of extrapolating from the client’s favored classical style principles of ordering, rhythm and proportion applied to a building which could be seen as being thoroughly ‘of this day’. This led us to look at the potential in the contemporary use of local stone as a way of mediating between the traditional and the new.